Back to the Basics

There is something strangely therapeutic about getting back to your roots…..And no I don’t mean my original hair color. Which by the way is still the same since the day I was born, maybe not quite as dark but still my original color. Yes, I am hitting that age where a few grey hairs like to find their way in but I just chalk it up to wisdom slowly being gained over time….right?

But what I do mean is back to the root of who I am..of who God has made me to be and what He has created me for.  Do you ever feel like life gets so full and cluttered that you begin to lose yourself? You lose your identity and the purpose for which you were made?

It is so easy to do and yet it almost happens without us knowing it.

I can’t really speak for anyone else…only for myself….but sometimes…

Sometimes I can get lost in being a Wife and Mom. I can get so caught up in meeting my families needs…being the chauffeur, nurse, teacher, holder of books and hair ties, cautionary voice and investigator of messy rooms, cook and chief bottle washer….

That I forget to be me….

Sometimes I get caught up in being a Pastor’s wife and church planting sidekick….keeper of schedules, organizer of events and children’s church, administrator, and janitor, encourager, small group leader, worship team member, supporter and prayer warrior….

That I forget to be me….

Sometimes I get caught up in being a farmer and gardener.…hay slinging, dirt shoveling, compost building, animal tamer, master chicken catcher and goat herder…

That I forget to be me…..

Sometimes I forget to be me….because I am busy meeting expectations.  Expectations of myself and ones I assume others have of me.

It’s not that those roles aren’t a part of who I am….Pastors Wife, Mom, Church Planter, Farmer, Student, Teacher….They are…but those roles are not what defines me.

Because if all those roles were gone tomorrow…If life was truly stripped back to the basics…One thing would always remain.  That I…Victoria…I am a daughter of my King.  That is not a role…

That is my identity..That is Who I Am.

And as such, I am loved for me...not for what I do, but for who I am.

I think that is why in this time of “decluttering” I find myself stripping back to the basics of who I am in Christ. Because the truth is..until I can grasp a hold of this vital truth, then I will always be running to “find myself” in what I do not in who I truly am in Him. 

It honestly takes some time to really wrap your head around…this “just being” instead of “doing.”

Are you running to find yourself in what you do? Have you forgotten who you are along the way?  Are you growing weary in the chase?

It’s time to let go of expectations…it’s time to stop chasing value and worth in temporal things.

It’s time to get back to the basics…

~Victoria

1 Corinthians 13:13 – “Three things will last forever–faith, hope, and love–and the greatest of these is love.”Psalm 139:13-15 – “For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb.  I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well.  My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place, when I was woven together in the depths of the earth.”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UUEy8nZvpdM

It’s all about Rhythm

Yesterday my own husband’s sermon challenged me.  Don’t get me wrong, I sit in church regularly on a Sunday AM and I hear what he has to say…what the Lord has to say through him and I am blessed by what he speaks.

But then there are those times that even my own husband steps on my toes without knowing it and I have to humbly admit that once again my husband is right...though I suppose in this case it is really the Lord calling my attention and striking right to the heart of the matter.

The topic of his sermon had to do with rhythm’s of God’s rest and work in our daily lives….

Rhythm’s of rest and work….rhythm’s of ministry and being ministered too….

But not only God’s rhythm but also God’s balance.

How easy it is to get off balance..out of whack…off kilter.  Whatever your saying is…that’s what I’m talking about.

Lately I have been feeling “off kilter”…out of rhythm with so much of my life.  There were various reasons for it but suffice to say…I was struggling to find my “rhythm” again in this busy life that I lead.

As wife, mom, daughter, student, pastor’s wife, ministry leader, writer…yes I could go on…as most of us can.

I’ve come to think that there is nothing more unsettling then to be “out of rhythm” with life….but not only with life but more importantly…out of rhythm with God.

And I was in that place…just feeling a little off from center.  I cried out to God often throughout my day. “God, what is all of this stuff going on in me? Why do I feel so out of whack?  What is this searching and reaching I feel in my spirit and heart? Where is your peace? Where is your direction?”

I wrestled, and yet I kept feeling like the birds that continually fly into our large glass windows each summer. They are flying along and then POW! They hit the window at full speed, fall down dazed and slightly confused…only to get back up and fly into the same window over and over again with the same results.

Yes, I would be that bird…. continually running into the same window, dazed and confused, wondering what I’m doing wrong and why I am getting no where.

As Brian spoke yesterday he referenced something he had learned from an “Experiencing God” course by Henry Blackaby.  He said that so much of the time we ask God to bless the things we want to do, the places we want to go but instead we need to ask God what he is blessing and join Him there. Join Him in the work he is already doing.

And that is what hit me like a ton of bricks…the reason I have been feeling “off kilter”, out of whack, out of rhythm with God.

I had become so worried about where I was going…or hoped to go….that I failed to work where I was at!

Sure, I have dreams and hopes that sit quietly in my heart…things I pray into often and look with hope for into the future.  But instead of focusing to far ahead God calls me to focus on the here and now…to seek out where he is extending his blessing in my sphere of influence…and to jump in there with a whole heart and serve him.

Just as the Israelite’s followed the cloud by day and the pillar of fire by night…stopping when it stopped, moving when it moved….never rushing ahead but simply following God’s leading to the promised land…..

Yes, that is how I want to walk, that is how I want to follow…that is how I want to lead.

So today I will choose to walk away from that perpetual glass window, to stop banging my head against the same obstacle ..and find the path that God wants me to fly…but not just fly…to soar in His rhythm!

~Victoria

Isaiah 43:19 – “See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland.”